You are herecontent / New Book "State of War" by NY Times' James Risen Gives Vital Background to Downing Street Memo

New Book "State of War" by NY Times' James Risen Gives Vital Background to Downing Street Memo

By Jonathan Schwarz

The relevant excerpts from State of War appear at the bottom of this post

After the Downing Street Memo was leaked last May, the U.S. and U.K. governments were eventually forced to admit it was genuine. However, they never revealed any background to the memo—most importantly, who did Richard Dearlove, head of British intelligence, meet with in Washington just before the July 23, 2002 high-level U.K. government meeting the memo memorialized? This would go a long way to answering why Dearlove believed "Military action was now seen as inevitable" and "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

State of War, the just-released book by New York Times reporter James Risen, sheds important new light on these issues. (State of War is now best known for its revelations about warrantless spying by the NSA, but it contains a great deal of other significant information.) Regarding the Downing Street Memo, the most important points made by State of War are these:

• Dearlove was in part reporting on a CIA-MI6 summit he attended with other top MI6 officials at CIA headquarters on Saturday, July 20, 2002
• According to "a former senior CIA officer," the meeting was held "at the urgent request of the British"; CIA officials believe "Blair had ordered Dearlove to go to Washington to find out what the Bush administration was really thinking about Iraq"
• During the day-long summit, Dearlove met privately with CIA head George Tenet for an hour and a half

This obviously raises other questions, such as:

• What records of the meeting exist on the American side?
• Will the Senate Intelligence Committee examine the meeting as part of its Phase II Iraq intelligence investigation?
• What specifically did Dearlove and Tenet discuss when alone?
• Why has the New York Times failed to publish Risen's information about the Downing Street Memo background?

Risen's book also makes the scoffing about the Downing Street Memo by various Washington pundits appear even more peculiar. For instance, in a Washington Post column, Michael Kinsley suggested Dearlove might have just been reporting back to Blair about what he'd heard from "the usual freelance chatterboxes." Later, in an exchange with Mark Danner, Kinsley indicated Dearlove may have simply been talking about the "mood and gossip of 'Washington.'"

In any case, there is clearly much more to the story, if anyone besides James Risen cares enough to investigate it.

As the invasion of Iraq drew closer, an attitude took hold among many senior CIA officials that war was inevitable—and so the quality of the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction didn't really matter. This attitude led CIA management to cut corners and accept shoddy intelligence, other CIA officials believe. "One of the senior guys in the NE Division [the Near East Division of the Directorate of Operations] told me that it isn't going to matter once we go to Baghdad, we are going to find mountains of this stuff," recalled a former CIA official, who left the agency after the war. This acceptance of weak intelligence among senior CIA officials appears to be the backstory to the famous so-called Downing Street Memo.

According to a former senior CIA official, the memo—the leaked British government document from July 2002 that provided a British assessment of the Bush administration's plans for Iraq—was written immediately after a secret conference in Washington between top officials of the CIA and British intelligence. The memo, dated July 23, reported that "there was a perceptible shift in attitude" in Washington about Iraq. The memo went on to say that "military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

The memo reflected an assessment of the prevailing attitude inside the Bush administration offered to Prime Minister Tony Blair by Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6, the British intelligence service. Just days before, Dearlove and other top MI6 officials had attended a CIA-MI6 summit meeting held at CIA headquarters, in which the two sides had candid talks about both counterterrorism and Iraq. According to a former senior CIA officer, the summit meeting was held at the urgent request of the British.

The American and British intelligence services are so close that under normal circumstances, they hold an annual summit to discuss a wide range of issues in a relaxed setting. The year before it had been held in Bermuda. But after 9/11, Tenet had told other CIA officials he was too busy to be bothered with another conference with the British, particularly one held in a remote location. The British were very insistent, however, and kept pushing for the meeting, the former CIA official said. The MI6 officials made it very clear to their CIA counterparts that they had to sit down and talk immediately.

CIA officials believe that Prime Minister Blair had ordered Dearlove to go to Washington to find out what the Bush administration was really thinking about Iraq. While Blair was in constant communication with President Bush, he apparently wanted his intelligence chief to scout out the thinking of other senior officials in Washington, to give him a reality check on what he was hearing from the White House.

"I think in hindsight that it is clear that Dearlove was insistent on having the summit because Blair wanted him to find out what was going on," said the former CIA official.

Tenet finally agreed to the conference as long as it could be held at CIA headquarters, rather than out of town. The session was scheduled for Saturday, July 20, 2002.

The two sides ended up spending most of that Saturday together. One of Tenet's great attributes was his ability to develop warm relationships with the chiefs of allied intelligence services, and Tenet had an especially good personal relationship with Dearlove. He was usually very candid with his British counterpart.

During the Saturday summmit, Tenet and Dearlove left the larger meeting and went off by themselves for about an hour and a half, according to a former senior CIA official who attended the summit. It is unclear what Tenet and Dearlove discussed during their one-on-one session. Yet Dearlove's overall assessment was reflected in the Downing Street Memo: the CIA chief and other CIA officials didn't believe that the WMD intelligence mattered, because was was coming one way or another.

"I doubt that Tenet would have said that Bush was fixing the intelligence," said a former CIA official. "But I think Dearlove was a very smart intelligence officer who could figure out what was going on. Plus, the MI6 station chief in Washington was in CIA headquarters all the time, with just about complete access to everything, and I am sure he was talking to a lot of people."

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But that's the big problem, isn't it. Apart from the blogosphere, few "average" Americans seem to care much about anything except their daily dose of "bread and circuses".

I am thoroughly convinced that His Majesty the President (in fact any President cum C-in-C in today's America) could get away with attacking any country in the world with no provocation whatever. He might be asked politely to provide some sort of rationale after the fact, but that's about it.

Americans only begin to give a damn after the chickens come home to roost -- and then only if they wake up long enough to assimilate a few of the more obvious facts and connections involved, which doesn't happen often with the constant media lullaby as background music.

Personally, given the popular performance record to date, I've pretty much given up on any "made-in-America" solution. I see more hope arising elsewhere in the non-KoolAid drinking world. Unfortunately, the kind of ultimate resolution that I see coming is not likely to be a very pleasant wake-up call for the blissfully ignorant.

I don't think I was putting all the blame on an uncaring populace. There's no doubt whatever that they are deliberately misled and distracted by the "powers that be", and I did mention the "media lullaby" as a significant contributing factor.

Clearly, that factor does need to be addressed and I know that you (among others) are doing your very best. I certainly do not mean to discourage or disparage that effort. But honestly, David, I just don't see much appetite for hard news and analytical thought amongst the "bread and circuses" crowd that seems to predominate in America today.

Neither regal propaganda nor its distributing lackeys prevented Americans from acting vigorously against the undesirable realities of the past -- and they had no electronic internet. If ordinary Russians were able to see through Pravda et al (and they were), I find it difficult to forgive Americans for their apparent blindness. To me, it seems to be a voluntary disability, at least in large measure.

There is hope...,we are a lot closer today than we were a year ago, there is talk about Impeachment now, here and there we see a sign. Cindy gave it a good start. A lot of facts were put together (273 pages) in a book "The Constitution in Crisis" it takes a lot of time to penetrate and the book will only be for sale in Spring.

It took a long time for Nixon to resign but finally he did! I know, the world just can't wait.

Instead of trying to reach people individually, or one email address book at a time, perhaps we need to do a better job of hammering the media that so many so readily trust. If we can get the MSM to wake up just a little, the cumulative effect on the masses could be far greater than vocal individuals like ourselves could ever hope for.

I have a friend that I have known for almost 40 years (since the age of 5). He's very smart, very successful and an all around wonderful person. Easily far above the average Joe. He also happens to be a republican and an unapologetic Bush supporter.

As you might imagine, we have had some very spirited discussions. We send each other links to check out all the time.

Last week he responded to one of my links with the complaint that "most of your links come from After Downing Street", which he then dismissed as a "Liberal blog". When I explained the difference, pointing out that it's a coalition of dozens of groups and individuals his response was "well, they're all Liberal groups and that guy David Swanson makes most of the posts. Not exactly 100% true journalism."

As if that's what he gets on the evening news!

The point is that if this is what the above average ones are saying and thinking, we're essentially spitting in the wind trying to reach people individually. If they're going to believe everything the MSM spews (and not believe anything it doesn't), we might do better to focus more of or efforts on that media.

If anyone has a database of media email addresses that they would like to share, perhaps you could find room to post them.

- Typically, someone in a position of strength will pose an argument based on fact, or refute one with fact. It is only when the facts don't support his position that he will fall back on attacking the messenger, not the message. It is a position of weakness. If your buddy wants to try to discredit David Swanson or anyone else, perhaps he should try doing so with FACT rather than personal attack.

-I've felt for a long time that if we want to get anywhere, we need to educate the broader populace. The only way to do this is through the mass media. Mr. Swanson had posted a clip from a pollster with the basic refrain of "I'm getting madder..." every time someone wrote to him about impeachment polling. Take a moment to think of a time when someone badgered or hounded you about something. Did it make you more likely to comply or less likely? Angry E-mails help to blow off steam, but they do NOT help the cause.

-Ever seen hare krisnas at an airport? mormons going door to door? they always send out their NEWEST members to do this. They know full well that they will not bring in any new converts. on the contrary, they will probably PISS PEOPLE OFF, get doors slammed in their faces, etc. This is what they're counting on. In fact, they shave their heads and dress them in orange robes in order to INVITE ridicule. It's part of the indoctrination process. Every time someone disparages them publicly, it serves to STRENGTHEN their commitment to the cause.

-A far more effective technique is to examine what the media hopes to accomplish, then appeal to that motivating factor. For example," latest statistics show that newspaper subscriptions are down, cable news is losing market share. web logs are steadily increasing in popularity. Obviously the public is not getting the information they want from your newspaper (television show, etc) your continued failure to report on the DSM (impeachment polling, whatever) risks your losing even more relevance. If your readership can't get the facts from your paper, ultimately they will go somewhere else. People are starting to wise up to what's going on. You can either get out in front and lead, or go down with a sinking ship. It's up to you."

-remember that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. obviously, we need to reinstall the appropriate regulatory legislation. in the mean time, we need to brainstorm ways to get results within the existing system.

We're as un-liberal as you can get and we're vehemently anti-war and anti-bush.

He can see for himself that these are not leftist partisan positions.

Moreover, we intensely hate the right-wingers for conflating their fascist oligarchy with the free market system we advocate and their hypocritical lies about being in favor of limited, responsible government, while they increase spending and expand authority.

This would give him a more nuanced perspective.

I really like your idea of pressuring the MSM to cover issues they would prefer to avoid,but how would efforts be coordinated?

Good LORD, I have read a bunch of bullshit in my lifetime, but if I put all that together, it wouldnt even come close to this website and many others listed. You guys talk about lying, yet you lie in every other word. These same said whack jobs here didnt have any of these problems with Bill Clinton bombing Iraq without U.N. approval. They decry the death of poor innocent children that the current administration, yet Bill Clinton dropped bombs in Kosovo from very high altitudes that killed hundreds of women and children, but I didnt see any of these websites up crying about that, and once again, we had NO U.N. approval to drop bombs in Kosovo, nor NATO approval.
When boiled all down into 1 main topic here, this is nothing more than a "I HATE BUSHIE BECAUSE HE BEAT MY CANDIDATE TWICE" temper tantrum by extremist left wing democrats that are so crazy, they turn anything they possibly can into some kind of crime. It's all a political bullshit move by the extremist left to I guess, retaliate against republicans for impeaching Clinton for actually breaking a long established law, called PERJURY. They say Bush "lied" but lying is actively knowing that what you are saying is a lie, yet the Clinton administration as well as their CIA intelligence are the one's that determined that Iraq had WMD's. It is ludicrous to think that the CIA intelligence was only made up of the BUSH administration's operatives, and that Bush totally replaced them all and they are the one's that provided this faulty information within 1 year of Bush's administration starting.
The whole world provided very similar intelligence, and after the Oil for Food scandal, where we now know France, Germany, and even Kofi Anan himself, were being influenced by money and oil offered for their Security Council vote against enforcing the 17 resolutions that he was found to have violated.
Facts dont seem to matter to this site. The truth is beyond their reach. It's pretty sad to see the lengths that these lunatics will go to, just to try to regain some power. Actually, its really sick.

... that justifies Repug efforts to out-do them with "pre-emptive" shock and awe attacks, "shake and bake" terror tactics, "indefinite detentions" and domestic spying of their own? What kind of logic is that?

It probably won't make much difference to your twisted way of thinking, but the fact is that not everyone here applauds the past or present Democrat party leadership either. Nor is everyone here anxious to see their existing cadre of hypocrits come to power.

Neither truth nor lies nor unprovoked wars are partisan commodities.

(There. I've met at least a small part of my obligations despite doubting that it will do much good.)

Surely you jest! Nobody could be as ignorant and illiterate as you appear to be. Or are you just retarded or LD? I didn't think retards were interested in politics but you are either an exception or just plain exceptionally STUPID. Maybe that's why you like Chumpy----you are both MORONS.

Just as long as you are a Dem backing LBJ or a GOP backing Nixon? How about right and wrong , does that matter at all in your "facts"? Or are you so blinded by party loyalty, the facts don't matter to you of tens of thousands of Iraqui deaths and over 2000 American soldiers deaths (plus allied soldiers deaths) in less than three years based on a pack of lies ? Is your blindfaith party loyalty worth more than those thousands and thousands of facts to you?

If you want facts , as you claim , then google PNAC and find out the truth about the Bushies war plots>>> BEFORE 9/11.

did'nt win, but he sure as hell ain't no Democrat! Granted, the preponderance of views here expressed are of the left wing statist variety,but opposition to you so-called "president"'s war crimes and abuses of power cut across the political spectrum.One noteworthy example,recently sited here:

Speaking of "ludicrous" thought, what can strain crudelity more than the assertion by your half-wit "president" that he waged war based on faulty intelligence?

He proposes that a wide range of types of failures within the intelligence services all produced misinformation that just happened by chance to converge into a consistent pattern indicating Iraq had WMD's, that their use against the United States was imminent,that Saddam Hussein was in collusion with ai-Qaida.

These types of failures, manifest on this order of magnitude must necessarily produce varied and conflicting conclusions.

No doubt, they did; how do you expect to avoid the conclusion that the current White House resident cherry-picked what he liked?

And even if he had been innocently misled, why does he not admit it and withdraw, instead of coming up with another rationalization for the invasion?

The fact is well documented that even before he was initially nominated for the Presidency, he intended to "get" Saddam.

The fact is well documented that while he was telling us everything was being done to avoid war, BEFORE the Land invasion,BEFORE being given congressional mandate,WITHOUT U.N. mandate(necessitated by the fact that the United States is A SIGNATORY TO THE U.N. CHARTER) and therefore the constitution expressly and unequivically refers to it as "the law of the land", aerial bombing had been stepped up and refocused in a manner that could ONLY be explained as preparatory to a land invasion.

Please note that you're getting this not from some "extremist left wing democrat", but from an extremist Libertarian, who would withdraw this country from the damned United Nations and kick them the hell out of New York! But while we're still in, we're obliged to play by the rules,a concept that appears to escape your degenerate little piece of garbage in the White House.

Try those facts on for size. I didn't need this site to obtain any of them.Do you think you can present any countervailing evidence?

You don't seem to grasp that there is an objective reality, subject to change by human action, but not by the whims or edicts of your cowardly "leader".The famous quote by Time Magazine writer Ron Suskind of an aide to your so-called "president" comes to mind:

"The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

The falsity of this metaphysic is the depeleted uranium albatross about the neck of your "president".

The objective facts are what they are, if the truths you formulate from them continue to employ the simplistic, self-serving logic you exhibit here, you contact with that objective reality will be ever more strained and limited, as you are forced to ignore more and more evidence that contradicts your false constructs.

I am coming to feel very much like Arvy does. When I read that half the American public agrees that torture is ok, and Iraq should be destoryed etc ,etc. When I talk to people they say ...No politics please. OR it has always been this way. OR you can't do anything about it. Those are my friends and family who think the war is appalling and that Bush is horrible. When I read 'people on the streets' opinions I am truely frightned for our future.

I criticized your negative tone in the past, but lately, I've come to share your pessimism.

As severe as the situation may in fact be, most people in this country experience a life of business as usual.I think this extends back past 9/11.

Consequently, even the distorted and oversimplified perspective provided by the MSM does'nt motivate, as it has no experiential corollary.

What makes me lose heart to some extent is not so much the "chickens having to come home to roost" so to speak, to get people to pay attention; but that people don't seem to grasp WHY the chickens are coming HERE.

It was easy for the bush gang to take advantage of 9/11 as a justification for their war agenda as most Americans were naturally disposed to see us collectively as the victim.

Before the pattern of agressive war, of which Iraq is only the most recent chapter and which, nuclear assault of Iran, I fear, is an imminent next chapter can be broken, an understanding of the origins of the pattern would have to be established:

As the government runs what passes for education in this society, that clarity of thought that would constitute a threat to authority is not cultivated.

Few understand the abstract nature of causation; that it is founded in the intrinsic attributes of the agent of the observed dynamic,and the concomitant attributes of the object of the agent's focus, or appreciate it's ramifications for foreign relations.

As we are the aggressor, only we can stop the conflict, the other side can only respond in an endless tit-for-tat.

it is our NATURE as the aggressor which is distinct and charges us with the unilateral obligation to end the conflict. If enough people had this clear in their minds, then the White House half-wit would'nt be able to sell them his juvenile comic book paradigm, complete with it's gratuitous villian, existent only to be arbitrarily "evil" and do harm as an end in itself; conveniently providing our hero, Superchimp, a peril to protect us from.

And of course, conveniently again,he is'nt quite omnipotent on his own, sooo...

We're just going to have to give HIM all our options to excercise, as in order to protect us, he's going to need all the power he can get.

Again, how convenient.

Most people buy into this crap without grasping it's patent absurdity.

Be that as it may, you still have a large aggregate of the apathic. But they are just the ballast in social dynamic, it's the struggle between the interested few that really determine which way they end up moving on a given issue.

So while I must concede matters do look grim, that does'nt change our obligations.

After all, we are still fallable, our estimation of the situation could prove inaccurate as to be overly pessimistic.

Agreed. But there are times when that "million kilowatt dam" seems mighty big and almost infinitely self-reinforcing to this "goat".

I sometimes wonder how it must look to the "sand niggers" and "ragheads" and "chinks" and "gooks" and other such despised "children of lesser gods" who are on the receiving end of America's "benign indifference" -- or worse. There are many, including some self-proclaimed "born again" Christians and occupants of fancy mansions in Washington, who seem more willing to put bullets between their eyes than to grant those "sub-humans" any of the rights and privileges they demand as their own unquestioned due.

Oh well, one way or another, "what goes around comes around" in the longer run. "Joe Average" may acknowledge that reality somewhere in his subconscious mind, but I'm afraid that the ultimate atonement may come as a rather large shock just the same.

Oh my brothers, Arvy and Bikemessenger . .. Try looking at your map and compass a different way . . .(key aspect of competition orienteering). . . We may be closer than we think, kidz . . ;-)

Look at the events of this weekend from an old fool's perspective(THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR HARD WORK THAT MADE HISTORY THIS WEEKEND!! YOU ROCK!!!)

1. We changed our model of protest outreach from "one big event in one big hard to manage location" because we saw that there was obviously a media blackout on our movement, thus PROVING our hypothesis that the Corporate Media Monopolies ARE biased and polarized against us AND the FCC is going along for the ride (shame shame!! You guys are "cheating" but the demise of the "Fairness Doctrine" and the 7-7-7 Media Ownership laws makes it "legal cheating, doesn't it?)

2. Our NEW model became "ONE big event in MANY easy to manage locations with realtime centralized/localized communications" This "Shotgun Pattern" was INCREDIBLE because all the events broke the noise floor in the LOCAL NEWS!!! Local News has heard enough of the trail of scandal stories from Rove-Plaim "Treasongate" to "Jack Abramoff" to know there is a LOCAL story in the controversy if nothing else.

3. All over the world, anyone that had heard "Cindy Sheehan" when she broke through the first major "noise floor" made a LOGICAL connection that revealed to them the amount of GROWTH the Anti-War movement has experienced in such a short amount of time.

I can't express to you how LONG it took the Vietnam Anti-War movement to experience this Rate-Of-Growth . . . and we weren't even fighting a fucking media blackout . . . they'd actually show the early saturdaze kidz getting our heads busted by LBJ & Nixon's storm troopers during the daily 6:30 NEWS . . that was dinner at my house . . . bodybags (gorebags)and all.

4. The key thing I saw shift this weekend was, in the spirit of every woman that ever stood up to a man doing wrong and hurting children for his own benefit from Queen Boudica standing down the Roman Troops in England to Rosa Parks standing down the KKK and the "Law" in the Old South to Cindy Sheehan standing down the US Secret Police in Texas to demand an answer to "WHAT JUST AND NOBLE CAUSE??" . . . This weekend, the WOMEN said THIS WAR IS BULLSHIT!!! Soccer Moms and Church Ladies all over the place joined the movement.
This was an INCREDIBLE shift in the demographics!!!

Now, I am not dis-respecting the hard work of my brothers at all here. Basically, for a large percentage of "Moms" around the world, people "talking bad/ugly" about this war and the Leaders that sold it to us were no longer being "SHAMED/PUNISHED" for being "Wrong" or "Bad." . . . If Mom says it's okay to be against the war . . . watch out!!!

In gaming terms, "WE LEVELED UP" again big time!! ;-)

5. The Main Stream Media didn't know what hit them!!! I was monitoring the media and the BEST they could come up with was the Mine Disaster in West Virginia . . . it was pathetic!!! That was definitely a desperate move to play the "emotional card" (Folks, anyone can tell you mining "accidents" happen frequently, especially in all those South African and South American mines that don't have to worry about all those "pesky safety codes")

They are trying their best to mount a "Sympathy for St. Sharon" campaign, but no one is buying it . . . too much blood on the old general's hands as well as his father's.

However, The People are staying focused . . . they want to know what's going on with this series of BushCo scandal after scandal. In other words, there is innocent blood in the water and everyone smells it. (Who killed Cock Robin?) Once this level of mass focus occurs, distraction becomes exponentially difficult for the "illusionists".

I heard no reports of obvious event distruption? If any occurred please post it so we can hear the tale. ;-)

Miami taught us it is MUCH easier to infiltrate and disrupt a HUGH event than a small local grassroots event. "Who is the asshole?" and "Anybody know this asshole?" are the only two "masonic" questions one need ask to neutralize this type of attack in a local setting. (Salute to all my brothers and sisters that suffered the heat in MIAMI . . . you were AWESOME!!!)

7. "Stress Them and See If They Will Fight!" - One of the problems with Patriarchal Fascism, is once the system gets stressed from exposure to "TRUH", all the players start to "blame each other" as everyone starts to fear that "fickle-finger-of-fate" as to who will be called up next to be "expendable" for the survival of the System.

The White House told Pat Robertson (700 Club/CBN) to shut the fuck up in no uncertain terms, kidz!! In other words, one VERY Arrogant, Proud, Rich and "Righteous" dude just got SHAMED by the Emperor in front of his 1 Million Viewer Power system!!! These guys HATE that!!! And like that great symbol of the "Grand Old Party", they NEVER forget an insult or an attack. That's why they all carry "enemies lists".

Now,if you've ever read "I, Claudius" or "All The President's Men", you probably realize that once this stage of Fascism is reached, it eats itself at an exponential rate.

David Letterman "Shamed" Bill O'Reily and his entire following
on The Late Show to a cheering audience for not only O'Reilly's TOTAL lack of ANY compassion for the pain of a fallen soldier's grieving mother . . . (thus qualifying him for Patriarchal Fascist asshole status) . . .
. . . but "Shaming" O'Reilly and his band of FANATICS for REVELING in the ATTACKING and ABUSING of the grieving mother of a fallen soldier . . .(thus qualifying him for Patriarchal Fascist SUPER ASSHOLE status) . . . (Cindy Sheehan, on behalf of my gender, I apologize to you for these "little men" behaving badly. . . I know their mama's taught them better than that)

Jon Stewart had "Shamed" O'Reilly before Christmas when Stewart told O'Reilly that while The Daily Show may "add insult to injury", his show "just adds injury." . . . This week, Jon Stewart was asked to host the Academy Awards and Bill O'Reilly wasn't. . . I can't wait.

There were lots of other "system alliance crumbling" stories, but you get my basic point.

I remember this vibe from WaterGate . . . prepare for the first quarter of 06 to be full of "Championship Finger Pointing" and "PNAC-AIPAC Intramural Scrimmages" as well as some major backpaddling by the Corporate Main Stream Media and the FCC (Moms asking, "WHY DID YOU LIE TO US ALL TOGETHER LIKE THAT?" to the media and "WHY DID YOU LET THEM LIE TO US LIKE THAT?" to the FCC and their elected officials.)

So, I enter this New Year with an optimism I haven't felt since that day I saw Richard Nixon board Marine One and pout, "They won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more."

Rock on, kidz!!! And remember, always be nice to Newbies. . .;-)

"Stand in the place where you live
Now face North
Think about direction
Wonder why you haven't before
Now stand in the place where you work
Now face West
Think about the place where you live
Wonder why you haven't before"
- Stand by REM (local region heroes!!! Hell, yeah!! . . .lol)

At the very grave risk of being seen as a rainer on everyone's parade, I'm not sure I'd have chosen that particular examplar of feminist power and glory.

Her war resulted in the deaths of thousands of her followers and those who survived were hunted down by Roman soldiers. Finally, faced with defeat, she took her own life by drinking from a poisoned chalice. Not exactly an outcome to be desired for those currently struggling against the new imperium.

How much longer did the Empire survive in this area after it had sunk to this level of Patriarchal Fascist hatred and disrespect towards the feminine and humanity in general?

0061 Common Era - Boudica lead revolt against Roman Army
0064 CE - Nero burns Rome and attempts false flag operation against "Christians" (Which had the support of the Rich Roman Women)
0117 CE - Hadrian's wall (Romans go on the Defensive)

How many fence sitters rejected the fascist "Roman Way" upon hearing this tale from the bards and fools in their local bars?

Yeah, the jerks got away with it that time, but the Alabama "Centurions" were not allowed to kill Rosa Parks and rape her daughter for the "Glory of Rome". The world would not stand for it.

Cindy Sheehan scares the hell out of these guys. Just like Jane Fonda did when she had that "audacity" to expose the Vietnamese "Enemy" as being "people". The CIA wasn't allowed to mount her head at Langley.

Always remember, kidz, you don't have to "WIN" to "succeed" sometimes. ;-)

"Let me bring you songs from the wood:
To make you feel much better than you could know.
Dust you down from tip to toe.
Show you how the garden grows.
Hold you steady as you go.
Join the chorus if you can:
It’ll make of you an honest man."
- Songs From The Wood by Jethro Tull

A famous line by the now exposed DeepThroat of Watergate era! Guess what? This has ALWAYS been true! From the search of gold and an eastern route in 15th century Europe to today, money (and its cousins "power" and "status") is the map to understanding imperial history.

Money and its power to buy and manipulate "opinion" and "news." The lack of money, or the fear of "rocking our economic boat," keeps the "bread and circus" in tow. People are not stupid, ignorant for sure, but not uncaring and stupid.

Therefore, there is an organic construct of the money movers, the business heads, of America. All of these "smart" above average Republicans (or conservatives) have one thing that keeps them together... MONEY.

Money is the common denominator that provides cohesion and their ability to find common enemies of any threats to the money pipeleine.
The Tom DeLay scandal is nothing compared to the overall "political transactions" that go on in D.C. and all over the world.

Which is precisely why D.C. will only talk "reform" about political money making, but trust me.... IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN! For quite obvious reasons.... billions of them!

As for me, my pessimism births from the reality that in USA the large majority of folk are just trying to get by from day to day, week to week. We are in a "survival" mode gentlemen, pure and simple. So to think that this new silent majority (the working poor) will start looking into corruption of our government is wishful thinking. They (we) are too busy trying to pay the frickn bills.

The masses are not lulled to sleep, they are merely fighting for survival. They know, each day they week, that what happens in DC has virtually nothing to do with their day to day affairs. McDonaldization of America (speaking of Corporate Cash Cows) has made certain that the masses are locked into a static unchanging system fed and nurtured by "the man with the money".... good ol' corporate conglomerates of america!

Money makes the news people! Money. It is at once simple, but also complex beyond imagination. Critical thinking has no place in the money machinery of america the consumer cow. Ther arts and social sciences are the first things to go in a learning society. Right now our humanities are all but run by the corporations, just like the MSW.

All to say, sorry for the reality check, but only mass anarchy and a total redistribution of resources (in other words, starting over) will make any change we need.

As with all great imperial empires of the past, this will only happen from within. The "leadership" will need to implode for the next change to occur. We are not quite there yet, but we are seeing sure signs of its inevitability. China and possibly India (with South America in the mix as well) are, if not already, taking the main stage of history. Saving (whats left of America) is, I'm afraid, a lost cause. My 2 cents.... which is about what I got left anyways! "Follow the money... just follow the money."

First let me say that I am extremely humbled by the level of intelligence with which you all express yourselves (Except of course for Patferr), it's always encouraging to hear my opinions echoed by such seemingly well-educated people who site actual legitimate resources when defending their respective points of view.

I very much agree that it seem unlikely that individual efforts will ever do much to convince die-hard Bush-supporters that they are being misled. They believe his crap because they want to, or more likely because he publicly validated a single opinion that they happen to hold dear. It may because they are a hunter and all those bleeding heart liberals want to take away their guns. It may be because they are a bigot and it's not secret that "Bush doesn't care about black people." It may be because they hate queers and Bush has hade no secret that he doesn't believe that homos deserve the same rights as everyone else. It may be because Bush describes himself as a Christian (not that a single one of his actions or policies have ever seemed to indicate that), and they too are God-fearing. Whatever the reason, they made a choice and as M7 pointed out, attacking their opinion only strengthens their resolve.

I agree that getting the media to report the TRUTH is the key. The question is, how do we do that? Well, as you've all pointed out, Cindy Sheehan did it. And before her, Rosa Parks and the list goes on. It's the people who compromise themselves who are able to affect change. It's the ones who believed something that most Americans have forgotten: THE END NEVER JUSTIFIES THE MEANS.

You've all recharged my batteries and I'm just some guy avoiding his work. Thanks for that!!

It is out of control consumerism that has created the den of fools who currently control the executive branch of the USA. Americans are not forced to consume 11 million barrels of oil each and every day. Bush and his cronies are not the source of the problem, they are simply a logical symptom.
As a Buddhist, I believe that if I lack control over my desires, then I will indeed suffer endlessly. A person who is humble and compassionate is not valued highly in the USA. These qualities are more likely to be considered liabilities, hindrances to "success".
We need to redifine what a successfully lived life really looks like. There is great irony in the fact that so many "christians" in America are living lives primarily focused upon endlessly hyped consumerism. Friendship and love are always more important than status.

The state of emergency Bush declared after 9/11 has since become the normal form of governance.

"We're at war!"
"We're at war!"
"We're at war!"
A consequence of this repeated statement--in various contexts--is a relational transformation between law and violence.

This state of war establishes a void between violence and the law, which is becoming very visible in the concentration camps (Guantanamo, the so-called "CIA Secret Jails," etc.), among other phenomena.
From a legal perspective, the situation of the detainees in Guantanamo is analogous to the situation of the Nazi camps detainees: they both have no legal status, and are thus exposed to potential bloody violence.

Read more at the magmareport.net about War, Emergency and the neutralization of civil liberties.

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